18 hours ago
The US-Israel war with Iran continues to feature in today's papers following Trump's threat over the weekend to strike Iranian power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not opened within 48 hours. The Financial Times describes the moment as a "new escalatory phase", while Israel's military chief called it the "halfway point" of the war that has entered its fourth week.
"Hopes for a rapid end to the war in the Gulf" diminished yesterday, the Times reports, as Tehran and Washington ramped up threats to "intensify bombing" "against civilian targets, including power stations, water plants and other critical services".
Tehran has vowed to "irreversibly destroy" vital infrastructure across the Middle East, the Guardian writes, if US forces act on Trump's threat of hitting Iran's power stations if the Strait of Hormuz is not fully opened by Monday night.
The Daily Telegraph also leads with Tehran's threats of targeting energy and oil infrastructure, which could send prices soaring "for a long time", Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Iranian parliament's speaker, said, according to the paper. Alongside the lead story is a photograph of Team GB celebrating their three golds at the World Athletics Indoor Championships on Sunday.
Similarly, the i Paper focuses on the "inescapable" impact on fuel prices from the war. Sir Keir Starmer's cost-of-living adviser has asked for a "temporary cap on profits made by energy and petrol companies to prevent firms exploiting crisis", according to the paper.
"Britain is safe", a cabinet minister has said, disputing claims "Tehran has firepower capable of reaching the UK", the Independent reports. The claims came from Israel, who warned "Iranian weapons are a threat to European cities" following missiles being "fired towards the UK-US Diego Garcia military base".
Sir Keir has been accused of keeping the public in the dark "for 30 hours" after an Iranian missile attack on a British overseas territory, the Daily Mail reports. Kemi Badenoch has called out the prime minister for overseeing a "culture of cover-ups" and asked why the public wasn't informed sooner, the paper says.
Union leaders are urging the government to set up an emergency taskforce to "protect Britain from the effects of America's war", the Metro reports. The approach should be a Covid-style effort, the TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said, according to the paper.
The UK's "soft-touch approach" to illegal migrants has come under scrutiny after the Daily Express "unmasked a begging gang boss as an axe-wielding thug", the paper reports. The Daily Express' investigation found that Iliuta Gruia – who was part of a group in Park Lane, London in 2025, where police welfare checks took place – is a Romanian criminal who has a restraining order against him for threatening to kill his children, the paper says.
Victims of disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein have called on British police to speak to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's second accuser, Johanna Sjoberg, the Daily Mirror reports. The Epstein files include references to Sjoberg, who claimed the former prince groped her breast while sitting on a couch inside Epstein's Manhattan apartment in 2001. Mountbatten-Windsor has denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
There will be no funeral for Ian Huntley, the former school caretaker who murdered two 10-year-old schoolgirls in Soham, the Sun reports. Huntley died after being attacked with a makeshift weapon by another inmate at HMP Frankland on 26 February.
And Chelsea has signed up Sir David Beckham for "the famous flower show, not the football team", the Daily Star says. The former football star will show off his "greenfingers at iconic event" in May, the paper reports.
